Isaiah Wright and Holy Cross will try to snap a two-game losing streak this Friday against Kennedy. Credit: GWImages/@GWImages
The only thing notable about Week 5 is that the second domino in the Copper Division’s setup will fall Friday night in Torrington when Naugatuck visits the suddenly hot Red Raiders. But since that’s our Game of the Week, we have to preview the more boring matchups first.
The favorites in this week’s games–the ones that matter, at least–are no-brainers. But they can’t afford any upsets to keep pace in both the divisional and playoff races.
Thursday, Oct. 11
Seymour at Ansonia: As Johnny Ribbs said, it’s time for the Wildcats to take their medicine this week. After the Chargers’ not-so-dominant performance against Holy Cross, we can be all but sure that they’ll have a little something to prove when they return back home for an old Valley rivalry game. If Derby couldn’t stick with Ansonia, there’s not much reason to think Seymour can. This week begins the soft underbelly of the Chargers’ schedule. Sorry, Seymour.
Picks: Remmy- Ansonia, 48-12. Kyle- Ansonia, 42-6.
Kennedy at Holy Cross: The Crusaders are in a bit of a perilous spot. They can’t lose another game the rest of the way if they want a real shot at getting into the Class S playoffs but there are more pressing concerns aside from the big picture. Holy Cross’ offense has been below average for a team with the expectations it has. The Isaiah Wright-run wildcat definitely has potential but when his legs are the only legitimate threat on the field there’s a lot of potential left on the sidelines (Adrian Brown, in particular). When we take a look at the offensive matchups in this game, the teams are pretty much the same: Wright is going to line up and run at Kennedy, and the Eagles are going to line up and run against Holy Cross. Something has to change for the Crusaders to be more than just another one of the average teams. Their defense is good but it can’t make up for the lack of offense.
Picks: Remmy- Holy Cross, 56-18. Kyle- Holy Cross, 35-6.
Friday, Oct. 12
Wilby at Wolcott: The Eagles are really heating up. Mike Nicol had one of the best games of his career last week at Seymour, accounting for five total touchdowns and making his presence felt on defense, too. The more impressive thing about Wolcott is that a new playmaker seems to step up every week. Joe Lynch is now a firm part of the offense but Matt Cyr was the Eagles’ breakout player last week, catching three touchdown passes. Wolcott looks to have as many capable weapons as anyone. Wilby is a fairly similar team to Seymour (athletic quarterback with an OK arm, running back who gets most of the workload) so the Eagles shouldn’t have too many problems at home.
Picks: Remmy- Wolcott, 49-20. Kyle- Wolcott, 41-12.
Watertown at Derby: The Red Raiders’ best offensive output since Week 1 came last week in a bit of a surprising blowout of Wilby. When Michael Kreiger and Dillon McMahon are both clicking, Derby can hang with almost anyone in the league. The Indians’ defense has been their stronger side of the ball but they haven’t faced an offense this good yet. But maybe Watertown finally has some momentum after gaining its first win. Still, it’s tough to see Derby losing a game at home when the team has set itself up for a shot at playoff contention.
Picks: Remmy- Derby, 35-27. Kyle- Derby, 47-13.
St. Paul at Woodland: This should be a battle between the two best quarterbacks in the NVL but it really shouldn’t be close. St. Paul has, by far, the worst defense in the league and is probably going to get torched by Tanner Kingsley and his finally complete corps of receivers. This is the Hawks’ tuneup for their tough, tough second-half schedule that begins next Friday in Torrington. The only question is how much damage the Falcons’ offense does against Woodland’s JV defense. If the Hawks’ staff wants to help Kingsley’s case for All-NVL at the end of the season, they might keep the varsity defense out there a bit longer to keep Logan Marchi’s usually inflated numbers down.
Picks: Remmy- Woodland, 52-14. Kyle- Woodland, 47-7.
Crosby at Sacred Heart: David Coggins, Javon Martin and Xavier Woods are all eligible to return for Sacred Heart. But we don’t know whether they’ll automatically assume starting positions after all that’s happened. Even if they do, how rusty might they be? Coggins, especially, hasn’t played a real high school game since November 2010. Plus, Jaquan Overbey wasn’t at Sacred Heart’s game last week, and we don’t know why. Crosby turns over the ball as much as any team in the league, so this might be a really, really sloppy game.
Picks: Remmy- Crosby, 27-20. Kyle- Sacred Heart, 33-27.
One more set of apologies for another week without preview videos. We promise, our faces will return in Week 6 (to your dismay, probably). Later this week, we’ll have our Game of the Week thread featuring Naugatuck at Torrington!
Week 5 predictions are presented by DiGiorgi Roofing and Siding. Since 1933, DiGiorgi Roofing and Siding has been providing Connecticut with quality replacement windows, gutters and home improvements of all kinds. Call today at 1-800-428-6438. DiGiorgi Roofing and Siding is a proud sponsor of the NVL Football Blog.
Holy Cross 52, Kennedy 6 – HC needs a bounce back game in a big way. Anybody who has watched Wright play should be extremely concerned about his attitude. But this is a game he will love. Stat accumulator.
Ansonia 56, Seymour 12 – No offense to Seymour. It’s just Ansonia
Naugatuck 33, Torrington 20 – Naugy has been extremely impressive as of late. Torrington’s suspensions and injuries are going to catch up with them here. Certainly a huge game.
Woodland 58, St Paul 42 – I think this will be closer than people think. St Paul’s horrid defense is mostly due to their inability to stop the run. Woodland runs a spread. I’m really surprised and confused about Kyle and Remmy’s score prediction. 7 points for the Falcons? Don’t blame Marchi for the defense’s troubles. Big game against Torrington’s varsity left them to resort to on sides kicks to keep the ball out of his hands. St Paul gets a stop or so, Woodland gets 3 or 4.
Derby 35, Watertown 12 – Derby’s speed on D will be too much for Watertown. Derby making it an exciting season.
Wolcott 47, Wilby 21 – Wolcott the significantly better and hotter team.
Crosby 21, Sacred Heart 20 – Ew.
Score prediction made me lol
mine or theirs?
Theirs
For the sake of everyone’s picks: Torrington’s suspended players (Phil Bresson, et al) are set to return Friday. Joan Toribio also played Saturday but in a limited capacity.
Another week of high scoring affairs.This year the NVL has to be the highest scoring conference in Conn.Kyle, do some home work on this.
Ansonia 50-13
HC 50-6
Naugy 37-32
Woodland 50-19
Derby 49-20
Wolcott 50-26
SH 34-28
Holy Cross
Ansonia
Torrington
Woodland
Derby
Wolcott
Crosby
Week 5 already:
HC routs Kennedy
AHS routs Syemour
Woodland routs St Paul
Derby routs Watertown
Wolcott routs Wiliby
Torrington over Naugy
Crosby over Sacred Heart
Ansonia vs Seymour- Chargers are just too much
HC vs Kennedy- HC in a snoozer
Naugy vs Torrington- I can’t trust Naugy, Torrington is heading in right direction I like the Raiders
Woodland vs St Paul – No one stops anyone but Woodland is better. Hawks
Derby vs Watertown- Derby is gonna roll, Derby
Wolcott vs Wilby Wolcott is the best of the Rest in the Brass. Eagles
SH vs Crosby Hearts will look better as everyone plays Hearts
Ansonia
Holy Cross
Woodland
Derby
Naugatuck
Wolcott
Crosby
HC 49 Kennedy 0
AHS 49 Seymour 0
Torrington 27 Naugatuck 20
Woodland 49 St. Paul 0
Derby 35 Watertown 18
Wolcott 49 Wilby 0
Crosby 27 SHHS 12
Your shutouts are fantastic.
Ansonia
Holy Cross
Woodland
Derby
Torrington………..I hate this pick.
Wolcott
SHHS………..have no idea
HC-KENNEDY—cross should refine that wildcat offense,though they wont need it. cross-35-6
WOODY -ST.PAUL—if this was flag football it might be different–WOODLAND-40-14
DERBY-WATERTOWN—now that another ANSONIA-DERBY GAME is in the books,i hope GEORGE FRENCH wins out. DERBY 35 -7
NAUGY-TORRINGTON– ths looking for upset–but NAUGY comes out on top
20-14
WOLCOTT–WILBY–next title pretender blows out dissappointing wilby 42-6
SACRED HEART–CROSBY–returning players give hearts the lift they need over weak crosby—SH 21 -14
ANSONIA–SEYMOUR—IF NEWSOME plays its over early.if not ,its over early.
Right.
French has done an outstanding job at Derby. He gets my vote for Coach of the Year to this point. Derby has a big game this week vs. Watertown, at Wolcott next week, followed by Torrington at home. If Derby wins two of three, I smell playoffs for these guys, assuming they don’t lose to Seymour or Crosby. And then there’s Thanksgiving…that one will be interesting, I’m sure.
Coach French and his staff do as much with limited resources than most anyone in this league. Arguably one of the smallest schools in the state Derby is going to contend if for no other reason than the attitude that the staff has instilled. The town of Derby became bloated with pussies through the 90′s and that same selfish pussy attitude is why Derby created a soccer program….a program that Oldschool doesn’t believe has ever produced a winning season…. Now that many of the piss poor attitudes are grown and out of the system and the transient families with the parents whose kids did no wrong are not involved any longer in B.O.E. decisions what has surfaced is the passionate lifers have stayed true…rising above the naysayers to resurrect a once proud program. Oldschool sees it in glimpses….that is what made the Ansonia debacle so difficult to take. I watched, for the first time in a loooonnnnng while, a DERBY team coached by this staff play soft. Oldschool knows what oldschool saw…it doesn’t make me love this team less…it can’t happen again if the Raiders want a chance to redeem what Oldschool expects will be DERBY’s only loss of the season…that ass kicking to Ansonia in the playoffs.
Oldschool should’ve put a colon or a semi-colon after the word Ansonia so as to end the ass kicking statement and create a new stand alone preposition to denote a separate time.
sorry
It looks like 8-2 might be the cutoff in Class S this year. Still early, but it’s shaping up like that.
If indeed 8-2 is the cut off in class S,I only see Ansonia and Derby making it in.The only other loss i see Derby with is against Wolcott.That leaves ,Seymour,HC and Woodland looking out of those 3 i think Seymour finishes the season a 6-4 Woodland 7-3 and HC at 7-3 all 3 teams will need help in the class S.I think not playing that 10th game is going to hurt Woodland
I like the work Coach French has done too but if 8-2 is the cutoff, I only see Ansonia making the S. I just don’t see Derby going 8-2 with Watertown, Wolcott, Torrington, Seymour, Crosby and Shelton left on the schedule. I see 2 losses there, hope I’m wrong for the kids & coaches sake.
Woodland may not get in. The Hawks have some big games left on the schedule: Torrington, Naugatuck, Holy Cross and Wolcott before finishing the season with Seymour (Thanksgiving Eve).
Woodland only plays nine games, remember, so 7-2 could be damaging in relation to 8-2 teams (though not necessarily, since a lot of Woodland’s wins would be over quality opponents).
Derby has a chance. It will come down to the games against Wolcott, Torrington and Shelton. Win two of three and Derby should be in, but those are not easy tasks. The Raiders do have one quality win right now but I don’t know if I favor them in all three. We’ll see when we get there.
I wouldn’t rule out 8-1 for Woodland, either. With that offense, the Hawks are absolutely capable of winning out against the Copper titans, plus Wolcott and Seymour. I’m not saying it will happen but it’s absolutely possible.
Wolcott is in really good shape in Class M and actually Torrington has drawn the benefit of a down Class L to be in the running up there. And if Naugatuck beats Torrington this week, the Greyhounds are all of a sudden in good shape in Class LL.
Lots of time left. I’ll be taking our first solid look at the playoffs later this week in the Red Zone blog.
AHS 52 Seymour 6
Naugatuck 23 Torrington 20
Woodland 42 St. Paul 6
Derby 37 Watertown 12
Wolcott 49 Wilby 18
Crosby 27 SHHS 12
St. Paul 6? I smell a Twitter bashing coming soon!
Right? Players and coaches were all over that one.
I seriously think Woodland’s defense is out to prove something against St. Paul. Logan Marchi and Tanner Kingsley are both juniors, and I think the Hawks are a little tired of hearing how good Marchi is because of his numbers. I wouldn’t be shocked to see Woodland’s varsity defense stick it out most, if not all, of the way.
There’s no doubt March is talented. But his numbers are badly inflated by JV defenses. Like, really badly. You probably wouldn’t even notice until you see St. Paul play in person. The Falcons score a touchdown or two in the first half against the varsity–Marchi usually throws a pick-six (as he did four times in the first three weeks)–and then they score three more against the JV kids to inflate stats. It is what it is.
Kyle you have to know that reporting on the NFL or even NCAA games allows you to name a player out loud, but to pick on a 15 year old player is ridiculous at the least. Stop referring to JayVee time as we’ll, it’s silly and no body cares at any level of play. If you have a beef it’s with the coach, not the kid. Otherwise I am enjoying this blog…….
“There’s no doubt Marchi is talented.”
I would be doing a disservice to everyone if I treated varsity and JV time in games the same way. I cannot do that.
Ansonia 46-13 Seymour – Chargers are nasty at home
Holy Cross 42-6 Kennedy – As a member of the ’75′ Eagles I know better
Naugatuck 37-35 Torrington – Torrington will be on the wrong side of the onside
Woodland 52-36 St. Paul – Until St. Paul gives up less than 50 I have no choice
Derby 34-23 Watertown – Sorry Derby you are much better than I realized
Wolcott 42-19 Wilby – Wolcott looks like a playoff bound team
Sacred Heart 29-26 Crosby – Kyle mentioned the kids coming back might be rusty
18 year old don’t get rusty only 55 year old sports
writers.
So how are your guys NVL Fantasy teams doing ….
We’re updating the stats now. Will have it up tonight or early Thursday.
Ansonia 45, Seymour 21- Cats palyed Wolcott alot tougher than score says, key mistakes hurt the cats last week. Young but talented football team.
Holy Cross 40, Kennedy 14- Kennedy no chance
Naugy 27, Torrington 14- Torrington again overrated, although beating HC is solid win, mabe HC is a little overrated
Woodland 50, St Paul 35- St. Paul defense = Woodland offense playing against air….
Derby 42, Watertown 28- Derby looking good.
Wolcott 48, Wilby 12- Wolcott most likely a playoff team
Sacred Heart 34, Crosby 27- Hearts edge out the Bulldogs
AHS 49 12 over the Cats HC rolls 42 7 over Kennedy Derby rolls 35-7 Croby 21-20 over the Hearts Naugy beat Ttown 27-20 Woodland 56-21 over ST Paul I think Wiby will play Wolcott hard but lose 35-21 in a good game.On a side note any thoughts of Xavier hand. I think Xavier rolls by at least 3tds.
I agree, Xavier should win this one going away, I was told by several people that have seen Hand play ,that Hand is overrated this year, we’ll see friday night. If indeed hand losses big to Xavier, Kyle will you still keep the Tigers ahead of Ansonia in your voting?
Hand is not as good as they were last year, but they still have a very good defense. Fillipone makes those surfer skateboard looking goofballs play hard. That said, I dont see Hand losing by more than a TD. Hand is not nearly as talented as Xavier, but they are fundamentally sound and will keep it close because of their defense. Xavier struggled against Fairfield Prep.
Fair question, chargerfootball. I actually had Ansonia above Daniel Hand until this week’s poll, when I thought the Chargers had some vulnerabilities exposed. I’m not like a lot of voters who keep teams in the same spots unless they lose. I shuffle the standings a little bit based on week-to-week performances.
It will all depend on how Hand plays against Xavier. If the Tigers are blown out, I’ll probably drop them a few spots and Ansonia will take over No. 2. If Hand wins, I can’t promise than I’ll drop Xavier below Ansonia. I’ll love to watch the replay of the game so I can see for myself.
I will say that I have nothing predetermined before I see games and results each week. It should be interesting to see.
Ansonia
HC
Naugy
Woodland
Derby
Wolcott
Sacred Heart
At this time, id like to thank everyone for the cards,thoughts and well-wishers that were sent to me during my hospital stay.it was appreciated.enuff of that,back to football.
Welcome back D-wags. Oldschool may not like you but he certainly doesn’t wish you dead.
Glad to have you back, wags. All the regulars here were wishing you the best.
Eloquent as usual old school.
Wags now it feels right again with you here to bust balls.
Thanks Joe…Oldschool tries
Fish I think when it comes to the Xavier/Hand game your have to give Xavier a 7 point lead before the kick off. I have never seen so much of an edge given by the refs like I do up there. I won’t call it cheating but in many cases its highly questionable.
I agree, Xavier is more talented and at home. One of my very good friends is on the Xavier staff. Xavier is the only team in the SCC who uses Hartford County officials. I have seen teams get screwwed out of victories there in the past. That game is a showcase of two of the best programs in the state.
I personally think Ansonia is better than Hand, I would love to see Xavier play AHS to see who the best team in the state is. Would be a great match up.
Kinda like what Greenwich-Ansonia would have been during the Alex Thomas era. Four state champs stink.
Hey tonite at one point Xavier had 0 penalties and Hand had 10. Hand still won.
I’m not surprised by that as much as I am with the way Naugatuck dismantled Torrington. I thought Naugy would have problems with Torrington’s line. Guess not. The Copper is STILL up-for-grabs. First HC, then Torrington, now Naugy? Naugy has a date with Woodland and Holy Cross soon. It’s getting good!
Derby travels to Wolcott in the Brass!
Torrington visits Derby!
Wolcott at Holy Cross on Turkey Day!
Awesome stuff coming up!!!
Oh, yeah…Wolcott still has Ansonia on the list. Meh.
Holy Cross-good game for the crusaders to work on a few things
Ansonia-just way to much
Naugatuck-big win for the hounds
Woodland-no running game could hurt, expect a long game !!
Watertown- it’s a big win
Wolcott-wildcats will try hard
Sacred Heart-boy’s are back and will help !!
Kennedy 14 at Holy Cross 49- Holy cross in a blowout
Seymour 6 at Ansonia 52 – Nobody will even touch Ansonia this year.
St. Paul 35 at Woodland 48- If St. Paul actually had a defense they would be scary, along with a few more receivers to catch for Marchi. That kid has one of the better arms i’ve seen on a QB in a while.
Watertown 0 at Derby 49- Don’t know much about Watertown but they haven’t been playing well as of late. Gotta go with Derby on this one.
Wilby 12 at Wolcott 42- Nicol and Lynch just take after games.
Crosby 21 at Sacred Heart 28- Coggins makes his debut and has 180 receiving yards like old times. But the hearts still play no defense.
Ansonia 9000-0
Holy Cross 35-7
Wolcott 42-14
Derby 34-14
Woodland 52-21
Sacred Heart 21-16
Naugy 27-21
Holy Cross
Ansonia
Naugy
Woodland
Derby
Wolcott
Crosby